Many trainers hand out their slides at the beginning of a training course. They then ask the Learners to make notes as they progress through the day. The problem with this is fourfold:

Learners don’t know how to make useful notes, so they note down every bit of information from the slides.

Someone other than the Learner has created the slides. This means that the graphs, images, and words are not displayed in the Learner’s preferred learning style, which makes the information much harder to understand after the training event.

By handing out slides, Learners take very few, or no notes. This means that the Learner has not had the chance to process the learning.

The slide deck becomes the Learner’s primary recollection of the day, which is not a useful method for implementing behavioural change, as there is too

This is a Mind Map created by the Inventor of Mind Maps:

Tony Buzan, to show us how to successfully mind map.

Action For Learners who have attended previous learning events and received slide decks, encourage them to convert their hand-outs into 1-page of notes or a 1-page mind map. Ask your Learners to identify how they learn best. Do they learn by physically making notes, flash cards and mind maps (kinaesthetic learning)? By reading and hearing their notes out loud (auditory learning)? Or simply by reading over their existing notes (visual learning)? By adopting methods that fit their most effective learning style, Learners will make their notes more useful and engaging, which will help to inspire behavioural change.

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About Darren A. Smith

Darren has been working in the world of UK Supermarkets and Suppliers for over 20 years. He began his career as a buyer at one of the big 4 UK supermarkets and after rising through the ranks he decided to leave after 13 years and set-up Making Business Matter. For the last 14 years he has run MBM, which is a training provider to the UK grocery industry. Helping suppliers to the big four supermarkets to develop the soft skills that will secure them more profitable wins.